Oleksandr Savateev was appointed as the Vice-Chancellor Associate Professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, the Department of Chemistry.

“Having been living and working in Europe the whole my life, I am very excited to join the CUHK and do science in a very different environment“, – says Oleksandr. He adds that the group will continue research on heterogeneous carbon nitride photocatalysis, which is a topic of immediate interest worldwide.

“We will explore further the photocharged semiconductors as chemical reductants in organic synthesis, and will dive into the data-driven research.” – gives insights about the group’s plans Oleksandr. Upon irradiation with visible and UV light, many semiconductors can accumulate electrons. This process is often referred to as semiconductors photocharging and the group has already certain experience in this field. The photocharged semiconductors may then be used as equivalents of chemical reductants, such as H2, Zn dust, etc. to hydrogenate organic or inorganic compounds. While chemical reductants are hardly reusable, semiconductors may be recovered from the reaction mixture, photocharged and reused again. The group aims to design materials, which would be optimal for such application. In these endeavors, quantitative analysis of data published earlier is of great importance as it allows identifying the most promising material for further optimization.

The group’s plans are vast and ambitious. Therefore it requires highly-motivated and created group members with the right expertise. Check up for the available vacancies!